The present invention provides a new compound that can be used as a fluorescent probe for measuring the level of senescence of an individual in the urine, in vivo. The main role of cellular senescence is the prevention of the proliferation and accumulation of damaged or stressed cells and its subsequent removal, but the accumulation of these cells can trigger pathological processes such as inflammation, tissue destruction, aging or tumor formation. The main advantage of this innovation is the use of fluorescence as imaging technique, as it is cheaper and can be done using more common equipment. It also allows to quantify and track more than one treatment, being a urinalysis technique, it allows to store the samples and to make several measurements.
Currently, it has been tested in animal models using rats with induced tumors, and in healthy rats of different ages, being the results satisfactory when comparing them against immunohistochemical techniques. The main inventor is Ramón Martínez Máñez, director of the The Interuniversity Research Institute for Molecular Recognition and Technological Development, Ramón is founder of Senolytic Therapeutics, has more than 402 scientific publications and holds 26 patents. The invention has been protected through a patent application in 2019. The represented research team is looking for a collaboration that leads to a commercial exploitation of the presented invention.
Institution: Universitat Politècnica de València
TRL: 2-3
Protection status: Patent application
Contact: Vicente Barberá / vicente@viromii.com
